Suppose you aggravate a bad back by refusing to move, fearing movement to be dangerous. Your symptoms are influenced by your attitude: but are they organic or psychosomatic? Professor Richard Holton examines the role of attitudes in various illnesses, arguing that the distinction between the psychosomatic and the organic is much less clear than it looks.

Speakers

Professor Richard Holton is Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow of Peterhouse. Before that he was chair of the Philosophy Department at MIT. Although trained in philosophy of language, in recent years he has frequently worked with psychologists and medics on the boundaries between philosophy and science.